Ford offers pothole protection in new Fusion Sport sedan

Chris Woodyard

USA TODAY

Ford is taking a few more bumps out of the road of life.

It is expanding the availability of its pothole-detection technology, previously available in its Lincoln luxury cars and big Ford Expedition SUV, to include a mainstream midsize sedan model — the new 2017 Fusion V-6 Sport.

The car's computer detects when the car is running over a pothole, then instantly adjusts the shock absorbers to keep the tire from dropping into the depression. It works so well that Ford can demonstrate how the car can roll over a pothole without crushing ping-pong balls that had been dropped into it. The pothole protection feature will come standard on the car, says Ford spokesman Aaron Miller.

“The new Fusion V-6 Sport substantially reduces the harsh impact potholes often deliver,” says Jason Michener, a Ford engineer with expertise in the technology, in a statement. “Our new pothole-mitigation technology works by actually detecting potholes and catching the car’s wheel before it has a chance to drop all the way into the pothole.”

The system works through the use of 12 high-resolution sensors. The computer can adjust suspension dampers every two milliseconds. It starts operating as soon as the car encounters the lip of a pothole — faster than the blink of an eye — making the shock absorber stiffen so that the front wheel won't fall into the hole.

Since the front wheel already has already reacted, the computer knows the rear wheel is now ready to encounter the pothole as well.

The system was developed at a pothole-filled test center in Belgium. The center has a surfaces made to replicate some of the worst roads around the world. There's a 1.2-mile stretch of them.a 1.2-mile stretch of surfaces made to replicate some of the worst roads around the world.

The Fusion V-6 Sport, which comes to showrooms this summer, is a performance version of the popular midsize sedan. It will be powered by a 2.7-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 EcoBoost engine producing 325 horsepower.